Having had a blood test that showed my blood sugar to have been high for 3 months, I had to make some changes.  Now in a while I’ll go to take another test that will tell whether this is diabetes or a carb sensitivity. I’d much rather  have the carb sensitivity, cos it doesn’t get worse and cause other health issues like diabetes can. The test will tell.  Either way,  I have to get these numbers down, and learn to keep them down.  So….some permanent changes,  an old dog learning new tricks!

So, to reduce blood sugar levels, all I have to do is cut out most sugars, lots of fats, and any white carbs except for some occasional potato.  Sounds so simple……..but it cut down or out two of my most favorite things: cheese, and chocolate!  I eat a little morsel of cheese each evening, as a treat, nibbling it like a little mouse.  And a small piece of chocolate once in a while.

Turkey bacon is ok, not great in my mind yet, but ok.  Lots of fish and seafood suit me fine, and chicken is good, and versatile.  I don’t eat much pork, (well, used to….bacon!)  but I must have some beef sometimes.  Eggs  and nuts are ok as long as I don’t eat too many, and they do have some good nutrients in addition to their well-known problem of fat.  One  egg mixed with some  egg substitute and some mushrooms, onion and green pepper, make an excellent breakfast! Lots more veggies and fruit, and almost no prepared foods.  Whole wheat bread products.  And eating out is  a real challenge.

Having been a life long fan of Oriental food, some of this adaptation is somewhat  easy.  Oriental and Mediterranean diets contain much more veggies and seafood or meats which are not fatty, so meals along that line are good, and good for me, or anybody, really!  There aren’t many cows in China, cos they take too much land to graze on, and the land is so valuable for growing other things, like the staple of rice.  Wheat doesn ‘t grow well there, except in the northern parts. Inland in China they eat a lot of chicken and also pork, cos those two animals eat less expensive foods, and are not land-intensive to raise.  Along the coast of China, they take good advantage of the water around them to make some of the world’s best seafood dishes.

So now I eat a lot of meals that would be considered Oriental or Mediterranean.  Broiled veggies, and mushrooms, with shrimp for the best meal, with a dusting of cheese on top instead of a lot of cheese, lots of garlic to kick up the flavors and only a little oil to keep the veggies from drying out.  Mmmm!

Then in my travels, after having adopted whole wheat bread and brown rice as edible, I discovered Chinese black rice.  Black, really, turns the water purple as it cooks. It unhusked so there’s lot of fiber in the bran.  It is harder than other rice, takes 30 minutes to cook and takes a little more water.  It’s also called Forbidden Rice, due to the fact that it used to be reserved only for the Emperor in China.  But different kinds of black rice grow all over the Orient,  and are cooked in all sorts of dishes.  Sometimes it’s considered a dessert rice and combined with sweets, cos it blends well with sweet tastes.  It has a more nutty flavor than white rice.  And it’s rounded more, rather than long grain rice.  If you like rice, try some of this!  It’s hard to find in grocery stores, at least in my area.  But it’s available from several companies on-line and could be found in some Oriental food stores.

No dessert rice for me, but combined with a dish of fresh veggies, fresh ginger and garlic and some chicken or shrimp, it is an excellent meal.  And all the better if eaten with chop sticks! Oriental food tastes funny on a fork, but that’s just my opinion.

There’s a good Wikipedia article here about black rice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rice    And a picture from that article.